Donald Trump's lawsuit against Bob Woodward over audiobook is dismissed
The decision by U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe in Manhattan is a victory for Woodward, his publisher, Simon & Schuster, and its former owner, Paramount Global.
Woodward interviewed Trump 19 times between December 2019 and August 2020, and approximately 20% of "Rage" was derived from these interviews.
The book was released in September 2020, while the audiobook "The Trump Tapes," including Woodward's commentary, was released in October 2022.
In a 59-page decision, Gardephe stated that Trump did not plausibly allege that he and Woodward intended to be joint authors of "The Trump Tapes," noting that Simon & Schuster credited Trump as a "reader" while crediting Woodward as the author.
The judge, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, also stated that Trump did not demonstrate he had a copyright interest in his stand-alone responses to Woodward's questions.
Gardephe also stated that federal copyright law preempted Trump's state-law-based claims. He gave Trump until August 18 to amend his complaint a third time.
A spokesperson for Trump's legal team said in a statement: "In another biased action by a New York Court, this wrongful decision was issued without even affording President Trump the basic due process of a hearing. We will continue to ensure that those who commit wrongdoing against President Trump and all Americans are held accountable."
Lawyers for Woodward, Simon & Schuster and Paramount did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The defendants had argued that federal law barred Trump from copyrighting interviews conducted as part of his official duties, and that no president before him ever demanded royalties for publishing presidential interviews.
They also referred to Woodward as the "sole architect and true author" of the interviews, just as journalists like the late Walter Cronkite and Barbara Walters were in their interviews with other presidents.
Woodward also stated that his interviews reflected "classic news reporting," which helped convey accurate information to the public, and thus constituted "fair use."
Trump was sued in January 2023, claiming he had told Woodward repeatedly that the interviews were intended solely for the book. Woodward said he never agreed to that restriction.
The $49.98 million damages request was based on what Trump's lawyers called projected sales of 2 million audiobooks at $24.99 each.
Paramount sold Simon & Schuster in October 2023 to private equity firm KKR KKR.N for $1.62 billion in cash.
The case is
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
28 minutes ago
- New York Post
NY Gov. Kathy Hochul picks an abortion fight — to boost her re-election bid, inspire Dems
A new war between the states is erupting — this time over abortion. And if Gov. Kathy Hochul has her way, it will be the top talking point in her re-election campaign. A dozen states, including Texas and Louisiana, have enacted near-total bans on abortion. New York and seven other states are going on the offense against them. Hochul seeks to establish herself as America's Supreme Leader on abortion, dictating policy across the country through the shield law she signed in 2023. The law promises legal protection to New York doctors who prescribe abortion drugs via telemedicine to patients in states that restrict such treatments. Doctors are mailing abortion drugs to patients, sometimes without even a consultation, to thwart state laws. Texas and Louisiana are coming after some of these doctors, including New York's Dr. Margaret Carpenter. Her offense is especially outrageous: She prescribed a cocktail of abortion drugs to a Louisiana woman — without confirming the woman was actually pregnant. The recipient, who herself faces prosecution, allegedly forced the drugs on her pregnant 17-year-old daughter, who wanted to keep the baby. Louisiana wants to extradite Carpenter and try her in criminal court. A Texas court has slapped her with a $100,000 civil penalty. Hochul says there's 'no way in hell' she'll enforce the Texas penalty, or surrender Carpenter to Louisiana authorities. Hochul buttressed her shield law this spring, when she signed additional measures allowing abortion docs to keep their names off prescription bottles — making it harder for out-of-state law enforcement to track them down. Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican from the Hudson Valley, worries that Hochul 'has invited New York to be the abortion capital of the world.' Count on this battle to roil the New York governor's race in 2026. Lawler is frequently mentioned as Hochul's possible opponent, as is ardent pro-lifer Rep. Elise Stefanik. Stefanik gets an A+ rating from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a leading anti-abortion non-profit, for her work 'defend[ing] the lives of the unborn' and 'stopping hard-earned tax dollars from paying for abortion.' In 2023 she co-sponsored the SAVE Mothers and Babies Act, which would have barred the FDA from approving new abortion drugs and required abortion pills to be administered in person by a doctor or nurse — effectively outlawing their use in states with abortion bans. After the Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs ruling made abortion a local issue, Stefanik said it was time for the states to 'embrace this debate' over abortion. Democrats in New York would like nothing more. Expect them to run hard on abortion next year — because they won't have much else. Keep up with today's most important news Stay up on the very latest with Evening Update. Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters With the Empire State's population in decline, energy costs soaring, and high taxes and regulation throttling the economy, a hot-button issue like abortion is one of the few ways Democrats can inspire the party's leftist base. As if crusading for abortion access in Texas could possibly make up for New York's dead-last ranking in economic prospects, according to the Rich States, Poor States index. In her last gubernatorial race, Hochul was a one-trick pony. She unleashed millions of dollars' worth of ads against Republican nominee Lee Zeldin, slamming his pro-life stance — and she won. Lesson to the GOP: Take that issue off the table. In New York, women's reproductive rights are safely enshrined in the state's constitution. The question is closed — or it should be. New York's clash with anti-abortion states is widely expected to reach the Supreme Court, perhaps ahead of the November 2026 gubernatorial vote. It's a big deal. Every month, some 7,700 women in anti-abortion states terminate pregnancies with pills prescribed by telehealth doctors, according to the Society of Family Planning. New Yorkers should be asking why they are footing the bill for this legal battle. Shouldn't the state just mind its own business? The Dobbs decision empowered each state to make its own decisions about abortion. But Hochul is actually helping New York doctors break the laws of other states, using state taxpayer resources to do so. She has long made New York a sanctuary state for illegal migrants. Now she wants to make New York a sanctuary for lawless abortion providers. Expect New York to get clobbered when this case reaches the highest court: Hochul's efforts to evade and obstruct the laws of Texas and Louisiana violate the principles of federalism, as well as the spirit of Dobbs. Meanwhile, don't let the 2026 gubernatorial race devolve into a fistfight over abortion. Politicians running for the state's top job should be forced to focus on how to make New York affordable, safe and prosperous. And they should keep their noses out of other states' business. Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and co-founder of the Committee to Save Our City.
New York Post
28 minutes ago
- New York Post
US Olympic and Paralympic Committee bans transgender athletes in compliance with Trump order
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee is falling in line with an executive order from President Donald Trump banning transgender women from women's sports. The committee quietly updated its eligibility rules Monday, adding a paragraph to its 27-page 'Athlete Safety Policy' posted to its website that includes language that implies it bars transgender women from competing in women's divisions. Trump signed the 'Keeping Men out of Women's Sports' executive order — also known as Executive Order 14201 — in February. Advertisement The LA2028 official Olympic flag at Los Angeles City Hall on September 23, 2024. Getty Images 'The USOPC will continue to collaborate with various stakeholders with oversight responsibilities, e.g., IOC, IPC, NGBs, to ensure that women have a fair and safe competition environment consistent with Executive Order 14201 and the Ted Stevens Olympic & Amateur Sports Act,' the added language in the document stated. It's not clearly stated how the policy will be enforced, and it is unclear whether any American Olympians will be banned from the upcoming 2028 Summer Olympics taking place in Los Angeles. Advertisement A USOPC spokesperson told the New York Times that the committee had been having 'a series of respectful and constructive conversations with federal officials' following the president's executive order. The committee said it would work with national governing bodies to implement the new policy. 'As a federally chartered organization, we have an obligation to comply with federal expectations,' the USOPC statement read. President Donald Trump reacts after the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 Final match between Chelsea FC and Paris Saint-Germain. FIFA via Getty Images Advertisement No openly transgender woman has won an Olympic medal. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee's former policy based its rulings on 'real data and science-based evidence rather than ideology,' and that it would be 'making science-based decisions, sport by sport and discipline by discipline, within both the Olympic and Paralympic movements.' The International Olympic Committee has struggled to address the issue of transgender athletes in sports. USA Fencing updated its policy last week in response to criticism that it had been facing for allowing biological males to compete in the women's category. Part of the requirements to compete in a domestic women's competition include the language, 'Athletes who are of the female sex, provided all other entry criteria have been met.'
The Hill
28 minutes ago
- The Hill
The Memo: Trump fuels Epstein furor he wants to escape
President Trump and his allies are desperate to move past the Jeffrey Epstein controversy — but their own words and actions are having the opposite effect. Trump's decision to sue The Wall Street Journal over an Epstein-related story, his administration's choice to bar the Journal from the group of reporters who will cover the president's upcoming trip to Scotland, and Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) eagerness to avoid a House vote on disclosure of Epstein material have all given fresh fuel to the story. The self-defeating aspect of this approach was typified by one social media post among the many that Trump has been issuing. On Tuesday afternoon, the president lamented that the achievements of the first six months of his second term were being underplayed because 'all the Fake News wants to talk about is the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax!' His post, of course, gave the media another reason to keep talking about it. The sense of creeping anxiety emanating from the White House over the Epstein matter is testament to the unusual discord it has caused within the Trump base. Trump's astonishing political comeback, from the nadir of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, to winning the White House back last November, was enabled by the fierce loyalty of his 'Make America Great Again' (MAGA) supporters — and by a party that has grown ever-warier of crossing him. The Epstein matter is an unusual exception. Republican elected officials have proven uncommonly willing to break with the president — or at least create some discomfort for him. Even the Speaker has called for greater 'transparency' around Epstein, though he has more recently tried to close a perceived gap between himself and Trump. But Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) called on social media on Tuesday for a vote on disclosing the so-called Epstein files — exactly the thing Johnson has been moving to thwart. Norman said Republicans should 'vote on it before August recess and get it DONE!!' Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) has also called for the material to be released, while Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) — who has been to the fore of the effort — is now in open defiance of Trump. Massie noted in an X post Tuesday that he had introduced 'the only binding congressional legislation' to get the Epstein material released, and 'in return, the attacks on me intensified.' Massie included in his message a screenshot of a Trump social media attack on him, in which the president called him 'the worst Republican Congressman' and 'A real loser!' Massie, in turn, used that attack to try to juice fundraising support from his supporters so he could 'stay in the ring.' The big picture, of course, is that the Speaker's reluctance to hold a vote is giving more ammunition to those who suspect Trump has something to hide. Massie told reporters Tuesday morning that Johnson seemed to want his party colleagues to 'just sort of stick your head in the sand' on the issue. It is a matter of public record that Trump and Epstein, the disgraced financier and sexual predator, were friendly acquaintances for years in the 1990s and early 2000s. Trump called Epstein a 'terrific guy' in a 2002 New York Magazine profile and also noted Epstein's fondness for women 'on the younger side.' It's also known the two later fell out, though the precise reason has never been definitively established. Some reports cite a competitive battle over real estate, others contend Trump cut contact with Epstein after the latter behaved inappropriately at the future president's Mar-a-Lago club. Trump's legal suit against The Wall Street Journal centers on the news organization's claim that a birthday message from Trump was included in an album to mark Epstein's 50th birthday in 2003. Trump insists the story, and alleged letter, are false. In terms of the politics of the overall matter, Trump is reaping what his allies sowed, at least in some regard. People around Trump stoked general suspicion of all the circumstances surrounding Epstein, who died — apparently by suicide — in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges. The current storm was set off by the contrast between comments made by Attorney General Pam Bondi in February during a Fox News interview — where she said a list of Epstein's clients was 'sitting on my desk right now for review' — and an unsigned memo from the FBI and the Department of Justice earlier this month that contended 'no incriminating 'client list'' could be found. That set off real angst in the Trump base, with a number of MAGA-leaning commentators speaking out. The relatively meager polling that has been done in relation to Epstein underlines the political peril for the president. An Economist/YouGov poll released Tuesday found Americans disapproving of Trump's handling of the Epstein investigation by a huge margin. Fifty-six percent disapproved and just 22 percent approved. Significantly, exactly 1 in 4 Republicans disapproved of the president's actions, and an additional 30 percent declined to express an opinion. Just 45 percent of Republicans approved of how Trump had handled the matter. Those are unusually bad figures for Trump among Republicans. There is nothing very surprising about the overwhelming disapproval of the president's handling of the controversy among Democrats (only 7 percent approved), but it is also telling that independents came out against his actions by a massive 61 percent to 15 percent. For the moment, at least, Trump is stuck, and new developments are coming thick and fast. An announcement Tuesday from Bondi's social media account saying Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche would meet with Ghislaine Maxwell set off its own new round of speculation as to possible ulterior motives. In 2022, Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years for conspiring in Epstein's abuse. Trump has tried to turn the page repeatedly. So far, unusually, it hasn't worked.
